Thursday, April 7, 2011
One parent's suggestion for "21st century skills" curriculum
Our schools say their focus is on teaching "21st Century Skills", incorporating digital devices into the classroom and offering several computer technology courses by the time a student reaches high school. However, as a parent, I wonder why a certain 8th grader never learned about the risk of viruses from free gaming sites or how to avoid accidentally buying $9.99 ring tone subscriptions for her cell phone. That would seem to be a critical "21st century skill" - how not to be scammed by the Internet!
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Students just finished a project in computer technology class using Concert Tour Entrepreneur software. Sounds like it might be fun.
ReplyDeleteA business simulation program that improves math and planning skills as students manage a musical band, schedule concerts, authorize merchandise, etc., using data analysis, problem-solving skills, and critical thinking.
http://commerce.sunburst.com/product.aspx?p=51821
I still would prefer instruction on Excel, but I could be totally off base.
well, I would rather they used Alice or Greenfoot or Google AppInventor, and learned some actual programming. However, the Concert Tour project could be good if there is some real data analysis going on. I am not usually huge on Excel projects because they tend to devolve into exercises in generating colored charts, and if they aren't tied to a real problem, the students are not learning analysis. Any monkey can click through an Excel workbook, but even most college students don't understand how to problemsolve with Excel
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